Tuesdays with Dorie: Rugelach

We have made it back to New York, safe and sound. Thanks so much for all the well-wishes in the past few posts! Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to a more regular blog-checking schedule now. We’re staying in a temporary furnished apartment all the way downtown in the Financial District. Strange place to live, but hopefully we’ll find a “real” apartment of our own soon. At least this place has a big oven, so I was able to crank out the Rugelach that Grace of Piggy’s Cooking Journalchose for TWD this week.

I don’t have any fond childhood memories or stories of rugelach. In fact, I’d never had them before I moved to New York, and I’d never made them myself till the other day. If you’re not too familiar with rugelach either, it’s basically a cream cheese pastry that’s rolled out, schmeared with a sweet filling, and rolled up. They kinda look like mini croissants, no?

Dorie suggests using the food processor to bring the dough together. I won’t see my Cuisinart anytime soon (it’s been living in a storage facility, along with all my plug-in kitchen appliances, in New Jersey for the past couple of years), so I made it by hand…just a half recipe. It was super-easy, too. Rather than using cold butter and cream cheese, I brought them to cool room temperature, then just used my right hand to squish them together with the dry ingredients. No utensils needed, and very little chance of overworking the dough.

You can be really flexible with rugelach filling. I used apricot jam, cinnamon sugar, walnuts and dried cherries. You can use whatever jam you like (or no jam at all), different nuts, different dried fruits…Dorie even adds chocolate. I left that out of mine because I don’t like fruit and chocolate combos. I made a bit too much cinnamon sugar, so I sprinkled a little extra on top before baking. It’s important to chop up the chunky ingredients, like nuts and fruit, pretty well, because big bits can make the cookies hard to roll up neatly.

I think they came out quite cute, if I do say so myself. After rolling the cookies into crescents, I stuck them in the fridge for a couple hours. That way, they were nice and firm, and held together well in the oven. There was a little jam leakage out the sides, but nothing major, and I was able to pick it off when I lifted them off the sheet tray. These cookies are just lighty sweet from the filling (the dough has no sugar at all), and really good with the warm beverage of your choice. I think I’m gonna put a few of these in a baggie and munch on them while I wait in line to VOTE today!!

LOL @ jam leakage. I had MAJOR jam leakage on mine. Love that you sprinkled the cinnamon+sugar on top of the rugelach too. That last picture is gorgeous! Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

I’m a fellow TWD baker, and I was thinking that it would be nice if we all could chip in and get Laurie some small token/gift for all the work she does. Would you be willing to contribute? If I can get enough people, it would only be about $1 per person. No pressure :-) Let me know! bethberg12@yahoo.com

I’d never had these either until working at the bakery I’m now at. We make one that has a sweetened creamcheese filling that we then sprinkle with chocolate and cinnamon before rolling up, and we use to have a dried fig/raspberry jam/walnut one. So heavenly! I’m allergic to nuts, but sometimes I’d nibble one and face the consequences.

Wow – with all your move and everything you put me to shame this week. I could not make the rugelach due to kitchen remodeling. I had no countertops to roll any dough on for one thing. And yet you amazingly made yours. I’m jealous. They look delicious. I can’t wait to make them!

Stunning rugelach! This was my first time making them as well, and I loved them. I found the chocolate in my fruit filled version to just confuse things, so maybe I learned I am not a chocolate and fruit person either. How exciting to get to see all of your kitchen equipment soon!